Remember to Breathe: a Sunflowyr one-shot
by EldritchGeneral
Summary: Yang Xiao Long goes on a date, and her temper gets the better of her.


With apologies to dashingicecream

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Yang Xiao Long tied her jacket in front of her waist and inspected her face one final time in the bathroom mirror before rushing out into the living room.

"How do I look, sis?" she asked Ruby, who sat on her bed, playing videogames while Weiss sat behind her reading a book.

"You'll knock him dead, Yang," Ruby said, not looking from the screen.

"Reassuring if you actually took a look!"

Weiss looked up from her book. Yang's hair was fluffed and layered in an impeccable, practiced style, golden curls radiant in the light of the room. She wore a purple volleyball top that showed off her sun-kissed skin. No cleavage, just the shoulders and her abs. She'd rolled up the legs to her gray short shorts and over them she'd tied a purple jacket that matched her top and the tie was loose and enticing. Her shoes were the same, athletic, and accentuated her perfectly.

"I think you look fine, now go get your man," Weiss said, looking back at her book, face a scarlet shade.

"Thanks Weiss bye!" Yang said, bolting out of the room.

She walked out of the house and on the curb waited a car, next to which stood Nora Valkyrie in a ridiculous driver get up.

"Hey Yang! Lookin' good! Ren's in the car, get in there, dragon lady," she said, a devilish smirk on her face.

"Thanks Nora," Yang said, and Nora let her in the back of the car. It became rapidly apparent as she looked at her date that there'd been a miscommunication.

Ren sat straight, hands on his knees as he usually did, and looked at Yang with a pleasant smile on his face. God, that smile. Kill a man, that smile. He waited for her to get situated and nodded in greeting, "Evening, Yang."

He wore his hair up and his bangs framed his face, that shock of pink trailing down to a fine point. He wore a fine white dress shirt with green cuffs just past his elbows. Brown slacks and shoes. A green belt.

Yang smiled and blushed out of embarrassment as she rearranged her jacket around her waist, "Hey Ren, how's it been?"

"Good," he said, "Nice and calm, for a change."

Yang nodded, buckling herself in, "I can relate."

She mainly stared out the window, tugging at her shorts. She'd notice Ren lean forward, looking at her. His scroll dinged and he apologized and turned the ringer off. She said it was fine, apologizing far more for no apparent reason.

"Uh," Yang started, as they came into roads filled with fancy lanterns, "Where are we eating, exactly?"

"An old restaurant that serves food from Anima," Ren said, and shrugged one shoulder, "I just figured it would serve as a nice change of pace from the home-cooked things I've been making."

"You know, I love the home-cooked stuff," Yang said.

Ren frowned, as much as he was capable of, anyway.

They arrived at the restaurant and it had a faux-pagoda theme going on, red and black shingles and the people walking to and fro were dressed in finer silk than Yang had seen and there were jewels of colors and cuts beyond her knowing. A few of the patrons that paid attention to her would appraise her in that old way or new blood might give her a more unrestrained look.

Ren came around to her side of the car after giving Nora a goodbye and he took Yang by the arm without a second thought. Almost out of reflex she took the lead, dragging him along at first. She looked up at him and saw he was back to smiling, the pink lock of his hair in the evening city light an accent to the pure gaze he held for her. Few words and a look. All he'd ever needed.

Yang blushed and smiled, tugging on her pantleg, "I think I'm kind of underdressed for our date?" she said, trailing off towards the end.

"Why do you say that?" Ren asked, "You look wonderful."

She slugged him in the arm, pouting and smiling at the same time.

"Okay, ow?" Ren said, still smiling. He laughed as they went into the restaurant, she did too.

The greeter stared at the two with a pause in his smile and then continued with a raise in her brow, a twitch in two of her four ears, "Reservation for two?"

"Should be under Lie," Ren said.

"Yes, here we are," the greeter said, taking them to their table, the lights were moody and warm and the whole place smelled pleasant, far away flowers mingling with close by shores. Art adorned the walls in odd spacing and Yang couldn't tell the quality but she could practically hear the damn price tag.

They got sat down and Ren thanked the greeter and Yang didn't even realize she'd left. She looked around and met the eyes of a stranger in a suit who shook his head after she looked back down at the table.

Ren was looking at his menu, "Well, I'm in the mood for dumplings, you see anything you like?"

Yang flexed her hands and grabbed her menu, "Let's take a look here," the food at least looked familiar from her time in Anima and the few dishes her father bothered to remember from his heritage, "Eh, guess I'll have some fried noodles, and maybe some rolls," she started.

Soon she'd forgotten the whole of the environment and it was just them and the table and the food between them. She was a bruiser but she had enough sense to be polite when it suited her and the environment she was in but the two of them got to talking and the jokes and stories were so much that she started laughing altogether like a fool and so did Ren and his laugh was the most soothing thing she'd ever hear.

Out of the corner of her eye Yang saw someone talking to a waiter and he stared her way while Ren talked and she stared back at him. She took a drink from her cup and the waiter looked back to the group at the table and nodded and said something. He started walking their way. Yang looked at Ren. He'd stopped talking. He was looking at the group who'd talked to the waiter and he was very angry. Yang tugged at the leg of her shorts.

"Excuse me," the waiter began.

"Yes?" Ren said.

"We try to keep something of a decorum here," the waiter said, "So I'll have to ask you to be polite or have to ask you to leave."

Yang's cup was shaking in her hand, clinking against the metal skin. Ren noticed. Everybody noticed. The waiter didn't seem to care, whether she was angry or embarrassed did not matter in the least. Ren looked back at the waiter and spoke plainly, "We'll try and keep it down."

The waiter left but the people at the table were still talking and so was everyone else. The restaurant seemed so much louder and there was every kind of phrase thrown to the air and she couldn't help but catch them.

"Thought this place had a dress code."

"Finally some quiet."

"Ain't that the girl who shattered that guy's leg a few years ago?"

"Guess she got some sort of karma."

"Look at the arm, someone must have been there to clean up her mistake."

Yang shattered the cup in her hand and looked around in a blind fury, all thoughts twisted to red.

"Yang?"

She looked at Ren and that smile was gone. Her anger faded like a match dropped in a bucket. She may have said a few words as she left, tripping and stumbling as she stood from her chair. The greeter gave her a look.

She waited outside on a bench with her head in her hands. She wiped her face. She wasn't crying, just sitting there with a rock in her gut.

"Yang," Lie Ren began. He was standing at the other end of the bench, just looking at her. She didn't say anything, didn't even look at him. He sat down and looked at her dead on.

"I'm sorry," she said, standing up straight.

"What for?"

"Oh don't give me that," Yang said, clenching her fist, "You go through all this trouble and I can't keep my temper down."

"It was mainly Nora's idea, she'll understand-"

"It doesn't matter, I just, I get angry and I try to stare people down like everything's a fight. If I don't get better in places like this, places you're comfortable with, it's not fair to you or me," violet eyes met pink under the cool evening light, "I envy you, you know? How calm you can be."

Ren's smile was more forced, he looked off to Yang's side. He brushed a stray hair over her ear, "It's not like I'm always calm. Half of it's my semblance."

Yang took hold of his hand, "What's the other half?"

"Magic," he smiled, "Wanna learn?"

"Sure."

Ren closed his eyes, "Breathe in four seconds," and he did so, "hold four seconds, exhale four seconds." He did it again, "Don't think about anyth-" he opened his eyes and Yang's face was quite a bit closer.

They held there for quite a while, could have been a few seconds or an hour.

"I thought you didn't want everything to be a staredown?" Ren asked.

Yang slugged him. He pretended to be hurt and rubbed his arm. They started laughing again. While she had her eyes closed he pecked her on the cheek. She stopped and stared at him.

"You little sneak!" Yang said. And about punched him for real but he leaned back and dodged. They called for Nora and she was just about to head to an all-day breakfast place. They decided to head with her.

 _For what it's worth, after Nora found what happened, she wrote a review of the restaurant that was so scathing it lost a star._

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Inspired by a drawing by dashingicecream.


End file.
